North Vancouver RCMP are investigating after a driver struck a pedestrian on a Central Lonsdale sidewalk Wednesday afternoon.
The incident happened just before 3 p.m. The victim, a 34-year-old North Vancouver woman, was sitting on a bus shelter bench on the 2100 block of Lonsdale Avenue, across from London Drugs, when the driver of a northbound white sedan veered across two lanes of traffic, hopped the curb, hit the woman and smashed into a tree, according to police.
Police are conducting a mechanical inspection on this vehicle after a driver hopped the curb and hit a pedestrian on a Central Lonsdale sidewalk. photo supplied North Vancouver RCMP
Both the victim and the driver, a 27-year-old man from West Vancouver, were taken to Lions Gate Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries. Both were released later that night, according to Cpl. Richard De Jong, North Vancouver RCMP spokesman.
De Jong couldn’t say what the driver’s explanation for the crash was.
There was “a lot of screaming,” according to witness Shawn Sharma, who said the driver was passed out at the wheel at the previous light. A passerby knocked on his window and woke him up.
“He just took off from there. Bam. Into our sidewalk,” said Sharma, who works at the nearby Indian Fusion restaurant.
If it weren’t for the tree, the crash could have been much, much worse, Sharma said.
“Luckily that tree was there. It gave up its own life and saved a lot of people, I think,” he said. “There was an older gentleman who saw everything. He was maybe a foot away from the car. If that tree wasn’t there, he would have been done as well.”
Now police are trying to sort out what happened in the moments leading up to the incident. The car has been seized for a mechanical inspection. A photo from the police impound shows the vehicle with a sign on the windshield reading “Do Not Touch. Drug Invest.”
